Colegio Ikigai

Know thyself. This is your goal in life, and to get anywhere remotely close to achieving it, you will need to constantly unlearn much of what you once knew. Students, teachers and school leaders alike. Understanding yourself in alignment with your life plan, purpose, or Ikigai—the answer to the "why are you here?" question—is the most important journey a person can undertake. This quest for a better understanding of individual's human consciousness, must begin in school. In my opinion this is the main reason to educate children: so they can start to find their answer to "know thyself." The greatest gift Colegio Ikigai has given me over the last three years is a space to unlearn and deschool myself from ingrained and outdated life concepts. It has pushed me to know more about my inner self, and most valuably, it has taught me not to judge anyone else's point of view or ideas. Or as one new teacher at Colegio Ikigai puts it and has written on the wall, "Find your sparkle." Just as good for an eight year old. Year three starts tomorrow! 111 children will be arriving OMG. Malu Oropeza Josep Caubet Paula Nikotian Peter Chu Silke Otremba Alex Gray Américo Ferrara Joni AlWindi Katie Glenister-Soós Matt Jessop María Teresa Contreras González Brian Cooklin Stefan Doyle

Healing bowls, didgeridoos, yoga. Expanded awareness and expanded classrooms. Growth mind set, grit and resilience. Paint in my hair, sometimes on the wall, a bit of grift and lot graft, this has been the make or break summer for Colegio Ikigai. New students, new families, new teachers, means new hope for the school as we are a week away from starting Year 3. With healthy slice of hard work and luck next week, I expect we can start with 117 students and 25 members of staff. This was an abandoned school when we first found it and now we have children, families and staff returning for their third year and those ties and feeling of moving from a 'project' to a 'school,' are starting to shift for the community. Creating something from nothing has been the real challenge and continues to be the real personal reward. From cleaning toilets in the morning to trailing AI Metaverse programs in the afternoon, the school start-up experience has it all. But here it is, it exists and it's real and now more than ever the space has taken on a unique spirit and it's own identity and soul. Push yourself outside of your comfort zone this year, this is where your personal insight and growth will come from in life. Russell John Cailey Peter Chu Andrew Wright Silke Otremba Pablo Constain Barry Cooper Dr. Sabba Quidwai Yasir Patel Dan Fitzpatrick

Some great memories from the start of this new year at Colegio Ikigai, I admire the new feisty attitude of the team. The are quite literally ready to smash it! And learn CPD.

A school should be first and foremost a fun place to be and a relaxed environment. Yes the main school activity of learning is very serious, but to get the right climate in the school is a must. I am personally aiming for family friendly, informal and a warm environment at Colegio Ikigai. I want everyone who walks through the door to receive a hearty welcome, like welcoming home a long lost family member. From parents, to children to support staff and beyond, you need to be on first name basis with everyone. I also try and keep school messages simple, such as let's have fun this year and I want to see a lot of creativity in the creation of classes, everyone needs to speak English. Most qualified teachers with experience can handle the day to day, but unlock new attitudes, how people feel about a space becomes an essential priority. You should prioritize your school environment to drive admissions, in my experience, a warm welcome into friendly environment is a great start to any informative session about your school and speaks instantly to the 'why' you would want to put your child in the school.

First day back for the new staff at Colegio Ikigai and it's always good to feel that sense of engagement, rejuvenatation and feel the sense of a positive can-do-spirit amongst our new teams. I hope all the other schools around the world are enjoying this moment, basking in sunshine of well rested enthusiasm and new found patience and collaborating together, as one leadership team, to make the needed upgrades in instructional design. We must remember to see our teachers not as delivery systems of information, but as creative pioneers, engineering a modern pedagogy to blaze a trail across the educational universe. Try and get this message across in teacher induction, it will go down well! The best of luck to all teachers and school for this new year!

Look at all the paint I got in my hair during the remodeling of Colegio Ikigai! Gen-Alpha and Gen-Z, my two favorite generations, hold the key to solving some of the world's largest problems. I back them 100% to make that critical leap, collaborate, find workable solutions, and get this planet back on the right track. I completely believe in them. As a group, I am sold—they have so many new, fresh, and unique perspectives to offer. They are hyper-smart, but they need a different instructional model to flourish. If you think in pre-pandemic terms with them, you won't reach their full potential. 80% of students feel they don't fit in at school anymore, according to an OECD survey on social and emotional skills. Consider incorporating some of these ideas into your instructional practice this academic year: Learner-centered and fully personalized experiences, which give students choice and agency. Focus on distinct areas of talent and applying content knowledge in real-world situations. Project-based, interdisciplinary learning applied to solving real-world problems. Highly networked experiences rooted in technologically advanced settings. Take a chance on these students—they won't let you down. Let's give them substance to dig into, the freedom to create, and the technological space to express themselves and these learning experiences will positively impact their future lives. Engage them with something new this year teachers! Briony Watson Mathew Georghiou ✅ Philip Murdoch 🤙 Gerry Docherty Mark Stone Daniela Ramirez Darren Coxon Emma Rogers Raphael Miller Lynn Rogoff Jennifer Smith NIBIN ANTONY María Teresa Contreras González Polo Lam Gena Álvarez Frangos Kaddu Vicent Jessica Gonzalez TEDx Speaker / HundredEd Academy Member Ivonne Curiel Jamie Cant

I had a chance to visit with the The Edron Academy in Mexico City, to check out their new library and learn one new thing about how they see the world of education. "Educaton is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time, that nothing worth knowing can be taught." Hyperbolic and pithy, just how I like my quotes, but it does contain some wisdom and is a radical choice for quote in school library. Hats off. Most of life's deep insights, memorable experiences and moments of clarity, probably are not going to come in the classroom. I love Ray Dalio's take on uncovering insight into life. The new library is amazing, many congratulations and I would love to run an Education 3.0 learning session there at some point very soon. Orlando Garciacano Orlando Garciacano Barba Vivian Garciacano Silke Otremba Willon Fragoso Andrew Wright David W. Sime

It's a tough job being a Dad, you get very little guidance on how to do the job and no pay. You must be blessed with infinite patience, an ability to spin fifteen plates at one time and solve hundred problems a day with humour. It's lot like being a teacher. Great timing with the start of Copa America and Father's Day, no better time to celebrate a 1-0 win over Jamaica, with tacos, soft drinks and a kick about with the kids Colegio Ikigai. So thanks to all the Dads out that who support their children, always help their school with being kind, calm and level headed and offer practical solutions to life's complex challenges. We salute you! Luis Olavarrieta Javier Eduardo Uicab Cetina Jorge Milhe

What a school Unisus Independent School is, rocking out of British Columbia in the Okanagan Valley. Many thanks to some very special hospitality from Silke Otremba and Willon Fragoso for the visit. We spoke a lot about Education 3.0, and it's lovely to see how some of the ideas in Colegio Ikigai are inspiring other schools around the world to capture the zeitgeist and develop new ways of thinking about instructional practice. Like trying to capture the Ogopogo on camera, school instructional redesign can some days feel like finding a mythical creature, considering the waves of technological disruption we tend to negotiate in schools. But it is time to have these conversations "in school context," which now go way beyond how to use AI to plan classes, how and why to use VR with students, and whether the Metaverse and Blockchain are real; and enter into the discussion about what are the benefits for teachers and students to change their practice for the new academic year. Integrating, where we can, these probing, new, but equally revolutionary educational concepts. I really love working in education as it really is like one long and sophisticated conversation, revolving around how we can make education better for all our students, and I get to meet some great folks. It was a pleasure to meet this amazing and budding ED3 school community. Andrew Wright Matt Harbison Orlando Garciacano Ernesto Piedras Andrea D. Ferrari Jason Hobbs David W. Sime

We are actively #hiring! Know anyone who might be interested?